Lake Pontchartrain Tarpon

Wondering if there is still tarpon in Lake Pontchartrain. If so when is the best time to look for them and where? Really interested to find out any info. Thanks!

Thanks will look into it.

Found this article from way back when.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nEIaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tCMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5806%2C4094132

a few years ago (10+/-) a guy won the grand isle tarpon rodeo with a tarpon he caught in lake P.

There still in lake P. Before they opened spillway I hooked 5 of them in one year but still haven't gotten one I the boat to take a pic with. Hopefully this is my year!!

I hooked in two one about two or three years ago by the hospital wall

Tizzy you sure it wasen't a lady fish? LOL
As far as times try august. All of my fish were caught in the evening time on the southshore in s deep hole.

Pass Manchac at it's mouth at Lake Pontchartrain was 'the place' years and years ago. There is a pic of one caught there in Louisiana genealogy web( lagenweb.com) in the Tangipahoa page > If memory serves me it was caught by one of the Tucker men from Ponchatoula .

Been fishing the lake for many years and saw the lake go from a fresh water lake to the best saltwater fishing spot ever with the coming of the MRGO> This is when he tarpon started to show up. You could walk the break water around the airport by Seabrook and catch tarpon. Now with the MRGO closed you will see the lake change. Last year we did not have one major rain storm first time I every saw this. The flooded pearl river brings more fresh water into the lake than any other river or spillway. This year we have had major rains and this will bring more fresh water into the lake. If we get a storm or two and don't have to open the spillway guess it will be ok. Now if you have to open the spillway and we get the rains like in record years the lake will see major changes. Can remember when the grass beds of Madisonville were where legends of big trout were made. Bottom line with out the MRGO you will see major changes from year to year. Just look at Lafitte now there is no trout in areas where fisherman caught them for years. One think for sure is that change will be coming with the closing of the MRGO and the new river siphons like Davis pond.

Guy that is a hilarious article you found there!

Capt JS the tarpon should still be there. I didn't try last year because of the spillway. There's still a good influx from the chef. Granted it would run to Seabrook and that's where we would catch. I between those areas. If the pogies are there this year then they should show up. Pogies have been pretty thick this year so far. Hopefully I can get one in the boat this year and prove you wrong. :)

Yea bleedingduck I thought it was pretty funny myself.

Thanks for all the responses. Looks like I will have to wait till July or August to get out there and try. It seems from some of the research I have been doing is if there gone be there they will start to show up then. But like everyone else has been saying it seems the poogies are the key factor.

CaptJS, I will be 50 years young this July and can remember my paw paw talk about catching tarpon in the lake when I was a kid. The chef and the rigolets will bring enough saltwater in. I can remember them opening the spillway when I was young and the following year being a banner year for trout.

I have been fishing the lake for as old as you are. I can remember before MRGO when we went some 3 years without a trout being caught. Benny Larmann had a marina at Irish Bayou for over 69years and he told me these stories about fresh water and the lake. Good or bad but one thing is for sure changes will come to the lake now that MRGO has been closed. Like I posted the Madisonville grass beds were a place everyone fish for big and I mean big trout and hope they come back.

...don't'ya all 'Old Coot Capt's' know 'dem young'n do every thing right...what killed the lake was shell dredging,N.O City Hall w/Baton Rouge behind 'da curtain !!!...somebody made millions !!!...I can remember sitt'n on the seawall w/binoculars next to the PBY 'Dumbo' ramp in the early 50's at the end of Franklin Ave watch'n a tarpon fight less than 300 yrds out !!!...cheers

P/S...better watch eat'n 'dem fishes around that 'hospital wall', it use to be a 'leprosy coloney'...a disease that caused a 'seizure of 'da brain' ???...cheers

CaptJS,
I definitely was not trying to say that I know more than you. Also, I agree that the MRGO closing will change the lake. I just remember Paw Paw talking about catching Tarpon when he was young. I also agree with Mr. Rabbit and the shell dredging. I can remember catching the big trout in the grass and also 'scooping' crabs in the grass beds between bayou lacombe and the pipeline canal.

I got to get in on some of these OLD FART fishin stories.
Back in 57 when I was 10 years old, we lived off canal st around Warren Easton. Dear ole dad would load us up after work and head for the lake front seawall with lantern, washtub, cast net and dog food and catch a half tub of shrimp in no time. If it wasn’t too rough, us kids fished 3-4 crab nets while he was shrimpin. Around the same time we moved permanently to the camp at the Rigolets. We would head for the trestles (back when they were wood and may have still had the row of telephone poles all the way across the lake next to the bridge) and catch small croakers to use for bait to catch 3-5 lb trout for as long as the DIXIE beer lasted. For GUYHARVEY, Great stories of big tarpon caught in the hole where the sand was dredged to make Lincon Beach, I also remember, Mr. Eddie, (Eddie’s place) would drive down to fort pike and sit on the riprap at the N.O. end of the car bridge, snag a mullet or two and nearly every trip catch a Tarpon at least my size, late in the day. All before MRGO lined the pockets of the local politicians. I think nothing but GOOD will come out of closing the MRGO, and let the lake get back to the good ole days. Clam dredging and gill nets almost killed the lake, now they are both gone also.

But I remember MRGO was started in 1956 and completed about 1965/ We use to fish our of Benny Larmann's at Irish Bayou and like in my post the lake was having major problem back then. It was also being closed down in the summer due to major pollution from the many canals. Hope you are right but I know this for a fact MRGO saved the lake back then. This was the main problem
Because of repeated overflow from the lake into New Orleans during storms, in the 1950s the government built a series of hurricane protection levees along the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

After every storm, the city has pump polluted rainwater out of its streets into the lake, said Donald F. Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and a native of New Orleans who advises the federal government on managing the lake.

The Tarpon fishing was disrupted last year which kept out a lot of predator fish and allowed the Menhaden to boom plus the warmer weather has resulted in a bumper crop of baitfish in the lake.

Couple of changes though that have impacted the Tarpon fishing in the lake is the overfishing of the species in Mexico and Central America (these fish live over 60 years and they don't reproduce/grow as fast as other species. Louisiana also is to blame because there isn't any regulations on the books to protect this fishery. The little known secret is that thousands of these fish die each off the coastline of Louisiana due to the Menhaden boats.

The other factors include the decimation of the croaker & white trout fishery in Louisiana due to the shrimp by-catch. Lake Pontchatrain used to be filled with bull croaker & white trout but the numbers are no where near they where in the 1960's 1980's due to the shrimp by-catch.

Now having said all of that the Lake P Tarpon fishery while a shell of its once glorious past is still a thriving fishery. The Tarpon came into the Lake way before the MRGO was even built. The first known Tarpon tournament was held in the early 1800's in Madisonville, Louisiana where the hole at the Covington Country Club dock is was a prime hotspot.

The State of Louisiana, CCA, LSU, UNO, & the DWLF need to do a much better job of protecting this fishery because these fish grow very slowly and taking out an entire generation of them is quite high.

The Tarpon are in the Lake starting around early June and leave around October but the reason you don't hear about anyone catching them is because there are very few fisherman who actually fish for them. I would ask those that do fish for them to please practice catch & release so your children and grandchildren can catch them again and again.

The long-term benefit of closing off the MRGO is actually a good thing because it was creating an enormous deadzone in the Lake.

TT

Thanks Tarpon Tom. You sound like you know a thing or two about tarpon fishing in the lake. Wondering if the spots(Lincoln Beach, the tarpon holes on the east side of the airport) I keep coming across are still good areas to fish? Not looking for secret spots or anything just a general area and any advice you may have on the subject. I am just young guy who is looking for some info.

Thanks

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